Sacrifice the Substitue
by touketsu-hana
Summary: Takes place during Arrancar Arc! After Ichigo and his friends rescue Inoue and return the world of the living Aizen and the remaining espada are forced to retreat back to Hueco Mundo. Upon failing to collect spiritual power from Karakura Aizen conjures up a new plan to retrieve the kings key... but what does his plan have to do with Ichigo? Rated K for Violence and language
1. Chapter 1

******IN THIS STORY ICHIGO AND FRIENDS HAVE RESUCED INOUE BUT AIZEN AND THE ARRANCAR RETREATED FROM THE WORLD OF THE LIVING NO ARRANCAR WAS KILLED BY AIZEN******

**A/N: Rated K+ for violence and swearing**

**A/N2: Yo! So this is my first bleach fan fiction! HURRAY! I'm not the best of spellers… so I hope you all can get past all the grammar issues and enjoy the story! Im still working on finding a beta reader so if anyone is interested please contact me! Also be sure to review so I know what to fix! well ENJOY! See you at the end!**

Prologue: The new strategy

"I have a new assignment for you, Ulquiorra."

Sousuke Aizen calmly announced to the Espada standing in front of him. Ulquiorra stood still in the man's presence with his hands behind his back and eyes fixed. He was ready to receive his orders like any obedient follower of Aizen. He owed the man his life for using the hogyoku to revive him.

"This mission is very import to our objective" Aizen leaned back crossed his legs and rested his cheek on his hand. It was finally time to put his plan into action. "I need you to get me the substitute shinigami…. Kurosaki Ichigo"

The Cuarto Espada's expression didn't change "Hai Aizen-sama". The Espada bowed and turned his way to leave. Quietly the door pushed open and he silently excused himself.

Aizen turned to the screen once again, looking back at the picture of the orange-haired shinigami.

"It wont be long now… Kurosaki"

"Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji reporting sir!"

Both shinigami looked around the room confused. All the captions were gathered in two lines with Yamamoto sou-taichou in the middle leaning on his cane with his regular grumpy expression.

"Kuchiki-san Abarai-fukutaicho, you were called here to hear the recent discovery made by the 12 division…. This information involves you two as well as the captions

All the captions stood still waiting to hear the news about this new discovery "kurotsuchi-taicho report"

The freaky looking caption stepped forward with a smirk and started to report the new information

"A few days ago while researching the current Aizen and Kings Key problem, my squad came across some…. interesting information regarding on how to create it. The first option is to find a large area encroached with spiritual power and sacrifice that…. but there's a second way

_Another way? _The small caption's turquoise eye's narrowed and stepped forward

"how can there be another way"

"Let me finish!" kurotsuchi snapped and gave Toshiro a death glare "humph" kurotsuchi turned his head back to the front and faced all the captions

"as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted" giving Toshiro another glare who moved his head to the side and looked away from the caption "the second way is to get a sacrificial container with nearly unlimited reiatsu. The container being anything, souls, people, or even a person with a huge quantity of spiritual power"

Silence met this statement as everyone let this new information sink in

Toshiro lifted his head "Who are the possible people for this"

"well who else could fit the description other then the roukia boy….. Kurosaki Ichigo"

Rukia's blood froze and looked over to Renji who was thinking the same thought she was… they had to go and get Ichigo

Yamamoto opened his eyes to where they were just slits and looked at Rukia and Renji. "Abarai-fukutaicho Kuchiki-san your mission is to bring the substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo to soul society to secure his safety from the traitor Aizen."

"HAI! Yamamoto sou-taichou!" and Renji and Rukia ran off

_I hope we aren't to late… Ichigo please be safe_

Ichigo whipped his hand over his face taking off his hollow mask. He was walking home after another sleepless night defending Karakura from hollows. It's been 2 months since him and his friends rescued Inoue and Aizen and his arrancar went back into hiding. While he was here soul society was doing everything in their power to get ready for Aizen's next move.

His thinking was interrupted when he was hit by a rush of a huge amount of spiritual pressure _What the hell? _He put his hand on the hilt of his zanpakuto preparing for another battle. _Where did that pressure come from... _He looked around until he saw a black garganta close in the sky _looks like I'm not going to bed tonight_ he looked closer at the garganta and saw a blue haired figure with his hands in his pockets. There was a hollows jaw on the side of his face and a number 6 right above his hip next to a hollow hole placed on his lower mid stomach. Ichigo frowned "Grimmjow" He flashed stepped himself up to where Grimmjow was standing.

Grimmjow scowled at the sight of the orange hair shinigami "heh well at least you saved me the trouble of finding you"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed "Cut the crap Grimmjow why are you here!"

By now Ichigo had his zanpakuto unwrapped and clutched in his hands. _There's no other Espada with him… is he alone? No… he couldn't have given off that huge amount of reiatsu by himself_

Grimmjow snickered "Bring it on Shinigami! Give me a reason for why I came here!"

Grimmjow lunged at Ichigo with amazing speed aiming for his head, Ichigo shunpoed to his left avoiding the attack by mere centimeters.

"If this is all you got Grimmjow then you shouldn't have even bothered coming!" Ichigo flashed stepped behind Grimmjow and roars, "Getsuga Tensho!" the blackish red wave of energy engulfs Grimmjow in seconds. From within the dark blast, Ichigo could hear the Espada laughing and immerged unscathed by the attack

"Teh! Is that all ya' got shinigami?!" Grimmjow pulled out his sword and slashed Ichigo's shoulder making him loosen his defense position

not missing the chance he charged at Ichigo and landed a kick right in his stomach, sending him flying through multiple buildings. Grimmjow laughed in enjoyment of the pleasure he was getting by beating up the Orange haired teenager. The dust cleared as Ichigo stumbled to his feet and saw blood dripping from his forehead and shoulder "damn it" He placed his zanpakuto in front of him and the cloth wrapped around his arm

"BAN…KAI!" black reiatsu swarmed around Ichigo then disappeared revealing him in his bankai form.

Ichigo flash stepped behind Grimmjow at an even faster speed and shot another Getsuga Tensho. Grimmjow was sent flying to ground and crashed into the ground. He whipped his forehead and found blood smoothed out on his hand

"You son of a bitch!"

Ichigo saw a red sphere forming in Grimmjow's hand and shot right at him _cero! _Ichigo whipped his sword in front of him being pushed back by the force of the cero struggling to cut through it. Ichigo finally slashed through the attack but didn't see Grimmjow anywhere _where'd he go _his eyes went from side to side searching for the Espada and before he knew it Grimmjow Sonido'ed right in front of Ichigo lashing his side. Ichigo let out a grunt of pain and stumbled backwards. Grimmjow let out a laugh of pleasure then punched Ichigo in face sending him to the floor. _Shit… _Ichigo struggled to his knees and looked up seeing Grimmjow kneeling down looking him straight in the face. His blue eyes showed a crazy maniacal look in his eyes like he was enjoying the fight.

"I'm disappointed in you...shinigami"

Quickly struggling to his feet Ichigo flash stepped a few meters into the air distancing himself from his opponent but paused straight in his tracks

Ichigo leaned to the right avoiding another attack from Grimmjow, only to have him slam his foot down upon his back, hurling him through the air and crashing into the ground creating a crater in the ground where he landed. Grimmjow's feet reached the ground and he started walking around looking for the injured shinigami. "What's wrong shinigami?! You can't be beat yet! Come on out!" he sensed the boy's reiatsu and started walking towards him until he heard him whisper something.. Ichigo lifted his head. His eyes started to flow with spiritual power. He lifted his hand above his face but hesitated…. Ever since a while back he has felt like his mask had gotten... heavier like he was becoming closer to his hollow but he didn't have time to be afraid"

"This fight… ends now"

Ichigo swung his hand down. Spiritual pressure flew everywhere and Grimmjow just stood waiting to see what the hell the shinigami is going to try to pull next. The black and red energy subsided reveling a hollowed Ichigo. The shinigami's once warm amber eyes had turned cold black with yellow pupils, and a Hollow mask covered his entire face. Grimmjow's eyes widened Ichigo's wounds were…healed…. _what? That's high-speed regeneration…only an Espada at Ulquiorra's level has that enough spiritual power to do it during our last fight he wasnt nearly this powerful… _His eyes narrowed _so maybe this bastard really can be useful… _Grimmjow snapped out of thinking when Ichigo charged at him and swung his Zanpakuto at his chest.

Ichigo and Grimmjow clashed swords again causing nearby buildings to crumble. The force Ichigo was giving off started pushing Grimmjow back "Getsuga…Tensho!" Ichigo yelled and sent a massive crescent shape spiral of black and red reiatsu straight for Grimmjow. The attack made a direct hit leaving him panting and covered in blood.

Grimmjow charged for Ichigo planning to plunge his chest. Ichigo twirled around and swung his sword, knocking Grimmjow's hand away as it was about to plunge into his chest. Grimmjow's eyes widened. Ichigo lifted his Zanpakuto into the air and black and red light swirled around his blade with what seemed to be a hollow mask in the mist of it but right as Ichigo was going to let down his sword to unleash his powered up Getsuga Tensho and finish the battle a different blade stopped his.

Ichigo's eyes widened in shock _what?_ He followed the blade to see who it belonged to…. His eyes locked with the cold dark green ones…. It was Ulquiorra. He slashed Ichigo's sword aside easily and started to charge a green cero at the tip of his finger. "cero" Ichigo got into a defense position but before couldn't hold it back. The cero struck him penetrating his stance and sending him flying into a nearby building

"you bastard this is my fight!" Grimmjow yelled while pushing Ulquiorra out of the way

The expressionless Espada turned and stared at Grimmjow with chilling green eyes. The arancar had pale grey skin and a black number four in his chest next to hollow hole in the middle of it.

"Our orders from Aizen-sama were to capture the boy and bring him back. Not kill him. And if I had let it continue you would have died."

Ulquiorra then glared at Ichigo who was lying covered in rubble and blood. The Espada's murderous look made him feel panicked _This guys is strong… with that one attack he broke my arm and two of my ribs… _Ichigo lifted his hand above his face ready to summon his hollow mask that had been destroyed by Ulquiorra's previous Cero. _I gotta get this done quickly _Ichigo proceeded to pull his hand down but was stopped mid way. His eyes widened to find the Cuarto Espada clutching his wrist. Before Ichigo could react Ulquiorra kneed Ichigo in the gut with extreme force causing him cough up blood

"you….bast….ard" and with that Ichigo passed out. Ulquiorra tossed the unconscious shinigami to Grimmjow and opened a new garganta with the tap of his finger.

"bring him"

"why the fuck do I have to carry him?!"

Ulquiorra turned to Grimmjow. Grimmjow knew he wouldn't stand a chance against Ulquiorra so he sucked up his pride and scooped up the unconscious Ichigo with one hand and swung in over his shoulder and headed into the black portal. Before the two Espada could depart from the world of the living a bright light shined and revealed a Japanese style door. It slid open to revel a petite raven-haired girl standing next to a tall boy with red spiked hair pulled back in a ponytail. Rukia and Renji stepped out of the door and looked around

"Ichigo…Ichigo!" Rukia saw Ichigo being taken away by the two and flashed stepped as fast as she could Renji close behind her

"ICHIGO!" Rukia had sped up even faster desperately trying to get to Ichigo. Grimmjow just turned around and smirked at her. Rukia jumped at the portal "NO!" but before she could make it through, the garganta closed and she fell onto the sky floor.

"We…we were…to late"

**Well that's the end of the first chapter! Please provide feedback so I know if I should continue the story or not see you later!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow I want to say thank you to everyone who has followed and favorite my story so far! I never expected to get this well a turn out! Also thank you to Amae and Phantom Claire for reviewing! Both your reviews made me really happy and excited to continue on! Well here's the next the chapter I hope you all enjoy! See you at the bottom!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any bleach characters this is purely fan made all credit goes to creator Tite Kubo**

Previously in Sacrifice the Substitute

"you….bast….ard" and with that Ichigo passed out. Ulquiorra tossed the unconscious shinigami to Grimmjow and opened a new garganta with the tap of his finger.

Grimmjow scooped up the unconscious Ichigo with one hand and swung in over his shoulder and headed into the black portal. Before the two Espada could depart from the world of the living a bright light shined and revealed a Japanese style door. It slid open to revel a petite raven-haired girl standing next to a tall boy with red spiked hair pulled back in a ponytail. Rukia and Renji stepped out of the door and looked around

"ICHIGO!" Rukia had sped up even faster desperately trying to get to Ichigo. Grimmjow just turned around and smirked at her. Rukia jumped at the portal "NO!" but before she could make it through, the garganta closed and she fell onto the sky floor.

Chapter 2 New plan revealed

Ichigo slowly opened his eyes to find himself on the floor. He shot up straight and let out a groan. his stomach hurt like hell. He stood up clutching his side and looked around to figure out where the hell he ended up. He was standing in the middle of an all black small room equipped with an all white bed table and coach and a single window in the middle of the room showing the motionless world that was Huecto Mundo. He walked to the door and turned the knob and to no surprise it was locked. "Ah whatever!" Ichigo turned away feeling a little stupid for thinking that his captures would leave the door unlocked. _I'm gonna have to be more creative than that to get out of here_. Ichigo shot around when the door started to open. He reached behind him to grab the hilt of his zanpakuto, his eyes narrowed _shit… _He had only gripped air _they must have taken Zangetsu when I was unconscious… _Ichigo started to panic a little without his weapon he was completely defenseless. The door opened all the way and Ulquiorra slowly started walking toward Ichigo.

"I see your awake"

Ulquiorra continued to walk closer to Ichigo as a drip of sweat slid down Ichigo's forehead.

"Aizen requests your presence"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed and crossed his arms in protest

"I don't plan on going anywhere until you tell what's going on"

As soon as Ichigo finished his sentence Aizen appeared at the door with Gin straight behind him

"Well Ulquiorra you were taking so long I thought something had happened"

"Give him some slack Aizen-Taicho the boy has always been stubborn"

Ichigo narrowed his eyes and stiffened his shoulders

"What do you want from me…."

Aizen walked through the doors entrance and waked closer toward Ichigo. As Aizen approached him Ichigo went to raise his reiatsu to keep the x-caption away from him as blue spiritual power swarmed around Ichigo.

Aizen just watched the boy. _His reiastu seems to have no end to it…it's opened even more doors for me to use._ Aizen knew right then and there that he had been given the final piece of my grand plan and it was time to move into action.

Ichigo watched as Aizen reached into his robe and pulled out a shining light blue orb. The energy surrounding it was extraordinary and made Ichigo's eye widen _that's…. that's the hogyoku! _all he could think of when he saw the object was all the pain it put Rukia through… he started to fill up with anger making his spiritual pressure sky rocket. Still standing in the middle of the room you could see slight smirk appeared on Aizen's face. He took the hogyoku and held it out toward the shinigami. The orb started to glow brighter and brighter until the entire room was blinded in light blue light. It was then that all of sudden Ichigo felt extremely weak and his reiatsu started to lower and lower. His vision started to blur and his legs felt like they were about give out. _What… is…. happening! _He eventually became so weak that he dropped onto the floor out of energy.

"wha…." Ichigo could barley speak he was so weak he just laid there watching as Aizen hovered above him.

"what did you …..do" Ichigo lifted his head just high enough the see the devilish grin on Aizen's face.

"you know Ichigo I have had my sights on you from the very beginning"

Ichigo paused. He didn't care about what the man was babbling on about he just wanted to get the hell out of here. Ichigo gathered enough strength to get to his knees.

He glared up at Aizen "you see Ichigo-kun… I am in need of an almost unlimited amount of reiatsu"

"ya…" Ichigo stumbled to his feet "your plans to sacrifice Karakura Town…" Aizen's smirk disappeared "but I swore on my life to protect it! I wont let you get away with sacrificing my friends!" Ichigo's eyes started to glow a light blue and his spiritual power rose up again.

"Ichigo-kun, did anyone ever teach you manners? You seem to be lacking severely" Aizen's smile slipped a bit and he held the hogyoku in front of Ichigo once more. It slowly started to suck Ichigo's reiatsu out of his body and into itself. You could see the blue spiritual power coming out in strands and stored into the mist of the hogyoku. Ichigo was forced to his knees. His hands slapped down on the floor so he wouldn't fall on his face; At this point he was on the edge of consciousness and breathing was nearly impossible.

"I found an easier way to gather reiatsu…instead of creating a container… I could just capture one"

Ichigo's breathing had increased and he started to black out. He had lost to much power.

"what the hell are you goin on about" Ichigo struggled to stand up again

"Fool" Ulquiorra finally spoke up

Ichigo went to make a comeback but was interrupted

"don't you get it yet? All we need to do is sacrifice you. We don't need to gather any reiatsu. You have more then we need."

Aizen glanced down at the hogyoku, which still rested in the palm of his hand. The power circulating inside the glowing orb made Aizen smirk "Unfortunately the hogyoku can only store a limited amount of spiritual pressure at a time or it will explode… So we are going to have to keep you here for a while"

Aizen kneeled down low enough to make eye contact with Ichigo "cooperate and your suffering will be minimum"

"You Bastard... What makes you think I would ever help you"

"because you don't have a choice. I'm going to extract out all your reiatsu and use that to open up the portal to the kings key"

Ichigo just stayed still processing what Aizen and Grimmjow had just told him. "Teh… I'm going to defeat you Aizen and you wont know what to think after I kick you ass"

"ohhh is that so? Well we'll just have to see about that." Aizen then turned around and started to walk back out toward the door and signaled for Grimmjow and Gin to follow. Before he exited Aizen glanced back at the shinigami laid sprawled out on the floor smirked and left the boy to lay there helplessly in the dark.

**Ooohhh things are starting to get interesting! Whats going to happen to Ichigo D: and what are his friends doing to help?! Find out next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed and ill see you all next Saturday! Make sure to review! They make me feel warm inside 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N To start out I would like to thank everyone who has followed favorite reviewed or has even read my story it means a lot and I would just like to thank you all. Well I hope I don't disappoint you all on to the next chapter! See you at the bottom! **

Previously on Sacrifice the Substitute

Ichigo watched as Aizen reached into his shihakusho and pulled out a shining light blue orb. The energy surrounding it was extraordinary and made Ichigo's eye widen that's…. that's the hogyoku! Aizen took the hogyoku and held it out toward the shinigami. The orb started to glow brighter and brighter until the entire room was blinded in light blue light. It was then that all of sudden Ichigo felt extremely weak and his reiatsu started to lower and lower

"You see Ichigo-kun I found an easier way to gather reiatsu…instead of creating a container… I could just capture one"

* * *

Urahara shop

"Hmm I see… looks like Kurosaki-san has gotten himself in quiet a bit of trouble.

Sitting around the table in the shop were Renji and Rukia

"y-ya…" Renji looked down He felt complete shame for not being able to do anything for his friend

"There's nothing we can do about what happened for now we need to make a plan" Rukia settled her chin on her hand trying to think of what they could do next "the first thing we need to find out is what Aizen's goal is and we he wants with Ichigo"

" I believe we can help you with that"

Everyone turned around to find Matsumoto and Toshiro standing in the doorway instead but instead of her usual smile Matsumoto's face held a deep frown making everyone in the room know they weren't here for just a visit

"ahhhh Hitsugya-Taicho a pleasure" Urahara stood up and adjusted his hat to shadow his eyes "how about you start from the beginning"

After the story was explained Urahara sighed then spoke in usual peppy tone "well this is though one"

"Knowing how dangerous Aizen is the fact that he now has his hands on a highly potential threat to soul society needs to be dealt with" Toshiro crossed his arms and walked further into the shop

"But we cant forget that this is Ichigo we are talking about! No matter what he wont betray us…." Rukia was staring down at her feet as she clenched her fists "he would never.."

After no saying a word Matsumoto spoke up "Rukia im sure Ichigo is fine!" she walked over to Rukia and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her "it is Ichigo we are talking about right?"

"ya…"

"Jeez that idiot going missing on us who does he think he is" Renji pouted

"well on the bright side we already know where Ichigo is and I doubt he is in any danger at the moment so we will need to move fast."

"We cant risk sending any reinforcements and leave soul society unprotected" Toshiro knew how Ichigo's friends and family probably felt but they couldn't just leave at any moment

before anyone else could speak up their was a knock at the door. The door creaked opened revealing Uryuu the male showed no expression as usual and lifted his glasses to bridge of his nose. Followed behind him was Orihime

"Urahara-san, Kuchiki-san, Abarai-san" Orihime spoke up "what are you all doing here ?"

Uryuu didn't give anyone the chance to respond "Im guessing everyone is gathered due to the disappearance of Kurosaki's Reiatsu disappearance"

By now everyone was seated around the circle table with some standing since the room was a bit small to hold all these people.

"As uaual you fail to mess anything Uryuu"

Ishida just glanced over and ignored Urahara's comment and continued

"All the while we wait to enter Hueco Mundo and retrieve Ichigo the longer Aizen has to use him as a possible weapon against us"

"We cant just leave Kurosaki-kun…. He saved us… its only fair we repay him the favor! " Orihime was on the verge of tears by now knowing that her savor is experiencing what she had"

"_Kurosaki-kun… please be safe"_

* * *

~ Las Noches ~

Black.

That's the last thing he could remember.

Ichigo blinked his eyes a few times until they could focus enough to get a clear image of where the hell he could have ended up now and to his surprise he was back in the room he started in. He gathered enough strength to swing his legs over the side of the bed and stand himself up. He still felt extremely weak in fact… maybe weaker then before it was then that he felt something… something that was constantly crushing him. He looked around the room to locate the source of the pressure. The weight made him feel like he was about to be crushed. That was when he felt something cold around his neck… He moved his hand to feel what was on and felt like…. a metal band? But there was an opening of some sort. He walked over to the mirror and found that around his neck was a silver band with the hogyoku resting in the middle of it. So this must be the source. He remembered what Aizen had done when he first arrived. This thing could extract out his reiatsu… like hell he was gonna let that bastard get away with this. He had to get out over here. He scanned the room once more trying to find a way out. He looked around and found food on the table So this means someone had entered the room… If he could get through that door he could find his weapon and get the hell out of here. Like it was just on schedual the door started to open

Perfect.

Ichigo went and hid right behind the door the opened to reveal a low level arrancar. Probably here to see if he had eaten. They cant have him starving can they. As the arrancar walked through just enough room with the door left open Ichgio swopped out from behind the door and wiped his leg underneath the arrancar causing him to fall on his face Ichigo bolted through the door as fast as he could. His legs felt like they were jelly. His head was feeling fuzzy and his vision started to blur. Looks like he really had lost to much strength… Zangetsu… where is Zangetsu he was already horrible at sensing reiatsu so the fact that he's even weaker now was horrible. As Ichigo ran he took in as much as his surroundings in as possible to try to make a visible map in his head. Ichigo turned the corner still more white walls and long hallways _damn it is there any way out of this damn place…_ Damn it… he was blacking out now the hogyoku would suck out a bit of his strength a bit a time causing him to trip a little. Its been about 10 minutes since he started running someone must of notice his absence but all he could do right now was try and find Zangetsu or at least find a door somewhere. He turned another corner and his heart stopped

A dead end.

He turned around again only to become engulfed in even more panic at what he saw

* * *

WOOOO! WHAT COULD IT BE :0 Thank you everyone for reading! Feel free to review! And Ill see you all next week! Bye byeee


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